March 31 (Bloomberg) -- President Hugo Chavez left
Venezuela today to continue radiation therapy in Cuba as part of
treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer, six months before
seeking re-election.

Chavez, who spoke earlier in a nationwide broadcast from
the presidential palace in Caracas, said that this will be the
second of five radiation sessions in an attempt to prevent
cancerous tumors from returning. He returned to Caracas from his
first session in Cuba on March 29.

“I have faith that the threat that was incubated in my
body won’t return,” Chavez said. He boarded the presidential
plane this evening accompanied by one of his daughters and a
grandson while his ministers bid him farewell on the tarmac,
according to images broadcast on state television.

The 57-year-old self-declared socialist revolutionary has
undergone three operations in Cuba since being diagnosed with
cancer in June. He announced a recurrence in February after
receiving chemotherapy. Chavez, who will seek re-election in
October, will return April 4 or 5 to Venezuela for several days
before continuing treatment in the communist Caribbean island.

The campaign for the Oct. 7 presidential elections
officially begins July 1. Chavez will face 39-year-old governor
of Miranda state Henrique Capriles Radonski, who won a primary
in February by a landslide.